Fun on Friday: Don’t Send Your Scam Mail to This Guy

I have some advice for you wanna-be scammers out there.

Check your mailing list.

A scammer in British Columbia sent his pitch to a cop – a member of the Delta police economic and technical crime unit to be exact.

That’s not the ideal person to send a scam letter to. Just sayin’.

The letter came in an envelope that says in bold red letters “CORONAVIRUS AFFECTING MARKETS: READ NOW.”

This doesn’t strike me as the best approach. My translation of that is more like “THROW THIS JUNK MAIL IN THE TRASH NOW.” But perhaps I’m just cynical.

Here’s a question though: where’s the lie? I mean, the “headline” ain’t wrong.

Anyway, according to the Delta Optimist, (What a happy name for a newspaper undoubtedly filled with doom and gloom!) The sender claimed to be a stock analyst and geologist. The letter reportedly made “exaggerated claims” about a British Columbia gold mining company, including a projection of a 500% return.

The Optimist wasn’t so optimistic, reporting that the BC Securities Commission issued a news release April 8 about the scam, warning the public “to exercise extreme caution about aggressive promotion of Crestview Exploration Inc., a B.C. gold mining company.”

The cop – Const. Dustin Classen – sent out a press release about the letter.

“The public should be very cautious about making investment decisions based on any unsolicited materials, no matter if this comes via mail, text, email or social media.”

He’s right. BS is BS no matter the delivery method. But really, he could have stopped at “you should be very cautious about making investment decisions.” I mean, isn’t that common sense? Or am I just being cynical again?

The company issued a statement asserting that it was not responsible for the promotion and said the letter contained “unfounded forward-looking statements.”

Now, you know that there was a meeting where everybody talked about how great the letter was and bemoaned the fact that they were going to have to distance themselves from it. Somebody in that meeting probably suggested adding, “But please invest in our company anyway.” That was quickly nixed.

I have to say though, given the gajillions of dollars being injected into the global central banks, is it really out of the realm of possibility that a gold mining company would make big money? The potential is certainly there. I mean, I wouldn’t bet against gold.

So, is it really fair to label this a scam?

Here’s the rub though – Crestview is primarily in the exploration business. The company apparently has a few mines, but its long-term success is based on finding gold. You can’t make money on gold without finding gold. And Coronavirus can’t help with that.

So, it might not be a scam, but it’s certainly not a “sure thing” investment either.

Regardless, I wouldn’t take investment advice from some dude sending me unsolicited junk mail. Stick with the experts.

Fun on Friday is a weekly SchiffGold feature. We dig up some of the off-the-wall and off-beat stories relating to precious metals and share them with you – with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Click here to read other posts in this series.